Franken Calls for Hearings: on Alleged Violations of the Hatch Act and the evidence for the Republican politicizing of the FBI to alter election outcomes for Trump

Our Senator, the excellent Al Franken, is calling for hearings on FBI director Comey.  The issue will be the application of the Hatch Act. Well there should be hearings, there is apparent corruption in the form of politicization of the FBI taking place to alter election outcomes.  From CNN:

"I think that there should be hearings, and I'm certain there will be hearings in the Judiciary Committee on this matter," the Franken told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

"Even more troubling is what we've heard from sort of the rogue elements of the FBI seemingly tipping off former (New York City) Mayor (Rudy) Giuliani that something was up. I mean, it just seems like -- that's not the FBI," Franken said.

"We will have hearings. I'm sure that FBI Director Comey will be before us," Franken said. "I think he should be able to answer questions about this, and he should be able to control the FBI."

The Daily Beast did an excellent job of documenting the money and other ways, not just the Hillary Clinton email issues, where current and former members of the FBI was allegedly acting for political purposes on behalf of Republicans, and ties the New York office of the FBI to the Trump campaign.  It is too long to post here, but well worth a read.  It names not only Rudely Guiliani, who ran his mouth far too much about his secret surprises that sound very much like he meant the Huma Abedin emails, the article mentioned Jim Kallman as well.  Read it here.

I was disappointed and took exception to the speech Comey made about Hillary Clinton back in July of this year.  It deviated significantly from the usual FBI policy regarding investigation results.  I thought it showed tremendous bias, particularly as subsequent information including from the FBI has further supported Clinton, including the statements in September and this past weekend.

Too bad for the Trumpanzees, too bad for the GOP.  What should never have been a controversy has been resolved in favor of Hillary Clinton.

As I noted at the time there was no 'new controversy'; the emails were duplicates, without any sensitive much less classified information.  I would argue that in advance of any findings of wrong doing FBI director Comey should never have announced the discovery of emails on a computer (or at a minimum have said there was no evidence these e-mails meant anything at all but were being looked at as part of a thorough judicial review process).

The big question of course remains, will the news reach voters in time.  Does good news ever reach as many people as news of scandal? No, not usually; and it appears harm was done by the "leak" of this non-scandal.

Rudely Guiliani, a man who has made a lot of dishonest statements in his day, including dozens about this election, appears to have been telling the truth when he ran his mouth about what appears to be the FBI statements by and letter from Comey.  Now he tries to walk that back, but the record of his statements are all too clear.

We saw the right-wing try to corrupt and suborn and subvert democracy, honest representative government, under Dubya, with the attempt to politicize the DOJ.  The GOP and specifically the Trump campaign, and the Trump charity money, has apparently been more successful in doing that with the FBI.

Thank You Senator Franken! (Congressman Chip Craavack, not so much)

I contact my members of Congress from time to time.

And I take very seriously the follow up and response from those elected representatives, Senators Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken and Congressman Chip Cravaack.

Cravaack's office has repeatedly promised to respond to requests for information and clarification and then failed to do so.  I have repeatedly caught Cravaack in misstatements of fact; a characteristic in which he resembles Congresswoman Bachmann.  No surprise, he has former Bachmann employees on his staff, and he espouses the same ideology over reality point of view.

It irritates me that such poor service to Cravaack's constituents is done on the taxpayer's nickel.

In contrast, both Senators Klobuchar and Franken have responsive offices; I have received prompt, accurate, and substantive replies to inquiries, and I have not noted any of the problems with inaccuracies that compare to Congressman Cravaack's.

When and if the above next run for those offices, or some other office, I would consider their service to their constitutents (or lack thereof) as important if not even more important to considering them for my vote.  My fellow Minnesotans should do the same.

Let me note, as context, that I have not been a donor OR a volunteer for any of the above; I am simply an informed and conscientious constituent.

Of the two senators, Al Franken has had the better organized and functioning office for serving constituents, and has accomplished far more in his time in office than the other freshman member of Congress, 'Chip' Cravaack.

It is in that regard that I share here a very prompt email response to my most recent inquiry, from the office of Senator Al Franken:

Thank you for contacting me about credit cards.  I share your concerns about unfair consumer credit practices and appreciate hearing your thoughts on this important matter.

I strongly believe that we must address head-on the unfair and deceptive consumer credit practices used by some unscrupulous companies.  There is no doubt that credit and debit cards are a valuable tool for consumers.  Yet, for too long, the playing field has been unfairly tilted in favor of credit card companies and away from working families.  Minnesotans know this from first-hand experience; just trying to navigate a modern-day credit card agreement is a daunting task.  Even experienced consumers with the time to review these contracts often have little understanding of what signing at the bottom line really means.

Fortunately, in May 2009, Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act to rein in major industry abuses. This much-needed law protects cardholders against arbitrary interest rate increases and prohibits card companies from imposing excessive fees.  While these are important first steps, we have a long way to go make sure that consumer financial markets are fair and competitive.

Laws are only as good as the regulators who enforce them.  Without proper oversight, credit card companies will continue to find ways to unfairly profit at the expense of consumers and bad actors will be able to get away with breaking the rules.  That's why I pushed hard to include a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) in the historic Wall Street reform legislation that Congress passed in 2010.  This is the first regulatory agency in American history tasked specifically with overseeing consumer financial products and services.  CFPB enforces federal consumer financial laws and has the power to pull dangerous loans and contracts off the market.  Above all, the mission of the CFPB is to ensure that consumers have the information they need to make informed financial decisions for themselves and their families.

I will continue to push for smart reforms to our nation's credit system and will work to make sure that Minnesotans have access to the credit they need.  Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind should additional legislation affecting consumer credit come before the Senate for consideration.

Thank you again for contacting me, and please don't hesitate to do so in the future regarding this or any other matter of concern to you.

Thank you Senator Franken for your prompt, ACCURATE, and well informed response.  I will be mindful of this and other similarly efficient and effective replies in 2012.  Well done Senator.  Keep up the good work.

Thank you, Senator Franken! (DOMA repeal hearings)

We hear a lot of nonsense from the right about the 'science' supporting their homophobic position.  Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a single scientific study to date that supports their position that heterosexuality is more natural or innate than homosexuality, or bisexuality.  In fact every single piece of scientific research that has been presented to support the view of sexuality and sexual orientation by the right has been either misrepresented, debunked as bad science, or is woefully out of date and has been superseded by more recent data which is consistently based on better and more rigorous use of the scientific methodology.
I had no idea what kind of senator you would make, Mr. Franken, when you were elected.  In 2008 I just knew that I liked you a whole lot better than that other guy.  You have exceeded my greatest expectations sir; and this is only one example of that.  Keep up the good work!